When word of Pope Benedict's resignation hit the newsstands Feb. 11, reactions in the press were barely veiled, and hardly charitable. Most voices celebrated the end of supposed rigidity and inflexibility, and some were openly harsh and condemning.

An op-ed piece in The New York Times, for example, called his papacy "uninspiring" and "woeful" — and dumped a litany of grievances at his feet. But who was this man, and who of his critics really knew him?

As pastor of a small Protestant group, I cannot claim to have been in his inner circle. But I did know him as the former Cardinal Ratzinger — I always called him "Brother Joseph" — and formed my own opinion of him after meeting with him four times, in Rome and in New York City, between 1995 and 1999.

I am not Catholic and do not subscribe to the idea of papal infallibility; neither do I agree with many other tenets of Catholic doctrine or belief. All the same, I tried to meet Ratzinger as a fellow human being — a brother in Christ — and I was not disappointed.

Though he has been vilified for dogmatism and coldness, I found him to be thoughtful, warm, and humble — and this despite the fact that our talks, which concerned the cruel persecution of Protestant groups by his own church in 16th-century Europe, were anything but flattering.

Confronted with the side of church history that included torture racks and burnings at the stake, he was not defensive but apologetic, and expressed tearful regret over what one Christian could have done to another.

Was he perfect? Of course not. Is his church guilty of much sin and injustice? That cannot be denied. But as its reluctant leader, he was thrust onto the world stage to inherit an institution that carries centuries of history, and he did not shrink from the task.

And while laymen and clergy alike called for "tolerance," Benedict pointed out that the Gospel is a mandate, not a dessert bar — and that its demands need not constrict and confine, but can instead liberate and release us from the sin and suffering that bind all of humankind:

The church must renounce worldly standards in order to accept the truth, and the way it must go will always lead to some form of martyrdom. We cannot bring about unity by diplomatic maneuvers; the result would be a structure based on human principles.

Instead, we must open ourselves to God. The unity he brings is the only true unity. This is the more difficult way, but we must wait on God, and go to meet him by cleansing our hearts.

These are prophetic words, and as such, they will be missed. As fellow disciples of Jesus, we ought not to spurn Pope Benedict, but rally around him, and pray that God's voice will speak through new lips.

Johann Christoph Arnold is senior pastor of the Bruderhof Communities and the founder of Breaking the Cycle of Violence.